ANTIQUITIES FROM NICARAGUA. 915 



executed and much more elaborate in form than the preceding. TJn- 

 painted. 



No. 61,743. Clay "Sinkers." An intelligent native told me that he 

 considered that these objects commonly called "sinkers" were, in reality, 

 tools used for molding the various clay vessels with which they are 

 associated. 



No. 61,746. A small round fragment of painted ware, perforated so as 

 to form a ring. Probably an ornament of some sort. 



No. 61,747. Shell implement found in burial urn. 



No. 61,748. Fish vertebra found in burial urn. 



No. 61,749. Flint flakes found in burial urns. Said by the natives 

 to have been used in fashioning the incised ornaments on pottery. 



No. 61,715. Clay disc; I can think of no probable use whatever for 

 this article. It is simply a round hard burnt disk 4£ inches wide by 

 about § inches thick with rounded edges. 



No. 61,716. Arrow-head found beside a skeleton which had been 

 buried outside of burial urns, and stretched at full length with face 

 up. 



No. 61,717. Small portion of a semi-fossilized human bone, probably 

 the ulna. Found inside of burial urn, at a depth of 5 feet below surface 

 of ground. No. 61,693, was found in the same urn. 



A great number of skulls and other portions of human skeletons 

 were encountered both inside and without the urns. Those inside the 

 urns were extremely fragmentary and crumbled at the slightest touch. 

 I brought the fragments of a skull found at a depth of five feet along 

 with Nos. 61,717 and 61,693. 



I also collected a large number of bones from skeletons found outside 

 of urns. 



These seemed to be in a much better state of preservation, but were 

 all jolted to pieces on the homeward voyage. 



Some of these skulls are remarkably thick with a good facial angle. 



It seems hard to account for these two modes of burial iu the same 

 spot. 



Skeletons were often found stretched out right by the side of the 

 urns. 



The fact that those found outside of urns were iu a much better state 

 of preservation than those inside would seem to preclude the idea of 

 the two modes being contemporaneous; the urns being an excellent 

 protection for the latter. The indications are that a considerable lapse 

 of time must have intervened between the two modes of burial, and 

 that the urn burial is the older method, and that the full-length inter- 

 ment was practiced by a subsequent race. This subsequent race must 

 have exposed the urns in digging their graves, and the question arises. 

 Why were the urns left undisturbed ? 



Dr. Bransford has suggested to me the most plausible answer to this 

 question which is substantially as follows: "All mankind, both savage 



